A difficult homecoming
by twinsthings
Summary: Brooke is in NY, preparing for the new CB store to open, Rachel is in Maryland for a photoshoot. At some point in time, Rachel and Brooke should re-unite in Kennedy Airport. But will it really be that easy?
1. Chapter 1: Scattered all over the place

**Head Office, Clothes/Bros – nightfall.**

It's been a year after graduating Tree Hill High. Brooke is making it into the big leage with her fashion line and has moved to The Big Apple, New York City. Eventhough she's busy with the opening of the second C/B store, she still manages to take some time off to keep the promises she made to her friends.

While leaving her desk, she walks up to her secretary, a young woman named Veronica. "Veronica, can you please not forget to make the security updates on the computer, oh and while you're at it, can you also make a backup disk of the latest lines stored? It would suck if they had to be put back on because one or the other idiot decides to delete them".

"Will do." Veronica replied. As she saw her boss walking towards the elevator that would eventually get her outside of the classy building. Then she whispered to herself: "It's not like I have something else to do on my free time."

As Brooke stepped outside of the elevator, she suddenly realised that she was turning into a person that she once said she'd never become. A royal pain in the ass that only worries about business.

She decided to go back upstairs to appologise to Veronica, maybe even give her the day or the week off. She didn't know yet, but she was gonna do something.

Once upstairs, she saw Veronica taking a CD-rom out of its box and planting it inside the computer. "Veronica?", Brooke said a little nervous and emberassed. As she waiting for a reply, she closened up on her secratary.

When she reached her desk, she repeated: "Veronica?".

The woman looked up from her computer screen. "Is there anything else you wanted me to do Miss Davis?". Brooke quickly formed an answer. "No, not at all. I just wanted to appologise.'"

"To appologise?" Veronica aksed, slightly surprised.

"Yeah, I know I haven't been the best person to be around lately. It's just that this is all kind of new to me, you know? I am turning into this person I never wanted to be and I"m not liking it very much myself. Therefore, get up and take the week off."

Veronica looked up from her computer screen again. She looked straight into Brookes eyes. "Take the week off? But what about the backup file you told me to make just minutes ago?"

Brooke looked up, rolling her eyes. She knew she wasn't good at these kinds of things but she also knew that, if she wanted to find herself again, she had to do this.

"Forget about the backup disk. There are things more important that work or backups. Just go home, relax for the week and we'll see what comes next. I would be very surprised if someone would be so interested in my designs that they would find a way to repell down from the rooftop all the way to the 9th floor to steal them from the computer. I'd be surprised if someone even took the elevator up to do the same. Point is that all of that can wait." Brooke said self secured.

"Okay." Veronica replied, still surprised by the sudden sense of amicallity from Brooke. "I guess I'll head on home than."

"You just do that." Brooke replied.

**Tree Hill, North Carolina – Karens Café**

Hundreds of miles away from the squirming streets of New York, there was a small croud gathering in front of Karens Café in Tree Hill, North Carolina. Best-selling author Lucas Scott, who was also the son of the woman that ran the café, was in town for the week. As he entered the café, he thought of the time when he was still pretty much a nobody in the world of literature. The time he could just walk the streets of his hometown without anyone asking for his signature or asking for a picture with him. He missed those times.

As he entered the café, he saw his mother and his little sister sitting behind the counter. "Hey Mom.", he said as he approached the two. "Long time no see."

Karen, Lucas' mother looked up towards her son. "Hey stranger, what a surprise!". She knew she sounded a little too exited but didn't really care. She stood up from her stool and went over to Lucas. "You look good." She said, as she embraced him. "You look like you gained a little weight over the past few months, but you look good." She repeated, hoping for a positive reply.

"You're not looking too bad yourself." Lucas said with a grin on his face. "How are my two favorite women in the world doing?" he joked to his little sister. He knew that she couldn't give her a correct reply, she was only one year old. But he liked the way she reacted everytime he asked her that question.

"So, have you seen any of the others?" Lucas asked his mother as he poored in some coffee. "They're supposed to meet me here."

As it was staged, a woman and a baby came inside the café.

"Oh my God, Haley! Look at you!" Lucas heard his mother say to the woman behind him. "You look great." She continued as she walked towards the woman to give her a hug.

Lucas turned around and looked at the woman. It was Haley, one of his best friends from highschool. She also married his brother Nathan, but he wasn't with her.

"Hales!" Lucas yelled. He ran towards her and gave her a hug.

Eventhough she looked a little surprised at first, Haley quickly spread one of her arms to reply to the huggings. Since she was holding a baby in the other arm, she knew it wouldn't have been smart to spread that arm as well.

"Hey guys." She said a bit doubtfull. "How are you doing?"

"I'm doing good." Lucas replied his friend as he rubbed over the blonde hair of the baby. "Look at how much he has grown."

"Tell me about it. I have to wake up every night because of his growpains." Haley said confirmingly. She looked at her son lovingly as she continued: "The doctor says it's normal for them to wake up so often when they're in this stage, so I guess I'll just deal with it." She laughed. "But enough about me. How have you been these past couple of months. It seems like I haven't heard from you in...forever."

"Yeah, I know" Lucas said, seemingly emberassed. "I've been under a lot of pressure to get the new chapters of my book written. My editor is giving me quite a hard time over it so I pretty much don't spend any time outside. Just behind my PC."

"Better You than me. I think that I'd kill myself if I didn't have some "me-time" from time to time, you know. Especially now with Jamie, sometimes its neccesary to just hang loose. Or, that's what I think about it." Haley said firmly.

"Where's Nathan?" Karen asked Haley. "I gotta say that I'm quite surprised that he's not here with you and Jamie. Is everything alright?"

Haley pondered a bit about the answer she was going to give. "Yeah we're doing...okay." "That doesn't sound too positive," she heard Lucas say, "what's going on?"

"Nothing much." Haley answered with a deep sigh. "Things are just a little rough at the moment."

"Why?" Karen asked.

"You know, because of Nathan's "trick" last year, there weren't any big colleges that wanted him to play for them. He ended up playing for Whitey's team but than they got into a little altrication so he quit."

"He quit?!?" Lucas asked amazed. "What do you mean, he quit?"

Haley continued: "He just did. He walked off the court during a training session and didn't go back anymore." "Oh My..." she heard Karen say as she continued: "After that happened, Whitey and the press pretty much ate him alive."

"So I take it your year hasn't exactly taken a positive turn then?" Lucas wondered.

"That's the very least you can say." Haley replied to him sarcastically. "But hey, what's done is done, right?"

**Annapolis, Maryland – 5 A.M. (L.T.)**

A group of people has gathered on Navy Peer. They're all very busy dragging things towards expensive looking pieces of equipment. At the very top of the peer, a girl in bikini is being make-upped and getting her hair done. It's Tree Hill's own fiesty redhead, Rachel. When the makeup artists and hairdressers are done, a photographer approaches them.

"So, do you think you're ready?" he asked Rachel while she was trying to find the correct point to stand.

"I think so." She replied nervously.

The photographer continued his questioning: "You've done stuff like this before haven't you? I mean, the shots in your portfolio looked good. Young, perky, not too experienced, but good."

Rachel didn't know how to reply. After all, she was doubting wether or not that last one was a bad remark or a compliment. She decided to stay neutral. "Thanks, I guess."

The photoshoot went on, practically in silence. The only sound you could hear was the occasional "click" from the camera, the "flash" and the photographer pointing out where Rachel had to stand next.

When she was done, Rachel put on a robe and went to her rental car. She got in and took her cellphone from the glove compartment. A big smile appeared on her face as she looked at the tiny screen. She had missed 4 calls and had also received 3 text messages.

She first checked the calls she had missed. Two of them were from Brooke and one of her mom. She was exited to hear that the last one was a call from her agent telling her that she had an apointment with an executive of Calvin Klein later that week. Apointments usually lead to new jobs, and a job with CK would look good on her resume.

After she had checked the phonecalls she had missed, she went on to the inbox of her cellphone. She had received 2 texts from Brooke and one from Mouth.

She read the one Mouth sent her first.

**"Hey Rach, what's up.  
Srry for not calling, been kinda busy,  
'll call ya later.**

**xxx.**

**Mouth"**

Eventhough she was fairly dissapointed at the text Mouth had sent her, she still wrote a simple "Okay" back to him, out of courtasy.

The 2 following ones were from Brooke.

The first message read:

**"Rachel**

**busy day today. I've been a total bitch  
against pretty much everyone.  
Ended up sending Veronica home.**

**I'm so tired!!!!**

**Xoxo  
Brooke"**

Rachel had to smile when she read Brookes message. Eventhough she had known Brooke for almost 3 years, sometimes she was still surprised at the things she did.

The second message was something completely different.

**"Hey Rach**

**Listen, what time do you think  
****you're gettin' off the plane tomorrow?  
I don't have anything to do so I can pick'ya  
up the at the A.P.**

**Send back if yu get this**

**Love**

**Brooke"**

After reading the message, Rachel replied that she would arrive at about 4 P.M. She knew that Brooke would be sleeping so she didn't expect an answer straight away.

After she had put her cellphone in her pocket, one of the photographer's assistants ran towards Rachels car. she opened the drivers-seat window. "Hey, the boss asked me to tell you that he'll email your agent a good recomendation." The assistant blurred out, clearly tired from running towards the car. "Oh, really? Thanks!" Rachel replied to her. "Does he have my agents email address?".

"Eughm. I don't know." The assistant answered confused. "I'll ask."

The assistant took a walkie-talkie out of a bag she was carrying with her and asked the photographer if he had the contacting information for Rachels agent. When she heard the man say "No, I don't" over the radio, she took a piece of paper and wrote the email address down. Afterwards, she gave it to the assistant.

The assistant didn't say much after that. A small "Thank you." And that was it. Rachel saw the girl walking away and looked at the sunrise. The orange glow was covering the water, the boats and the peer. Rachel couldn't help but to feel poetic. She took her cellphone and took a picture of the beautiful sighting. Than, she closed down the windown, sighed and looked forward.

She turned the car key and the engine started running. When she put her foot on the gas, she suddenly felt something shaking in her jeans. She stopped the car and was quite surprised to learn that it was a text message from Brooke.

END OF CHAPTER 1


	2. Chapter 2: R u for reals?

Chapter 2

**River court – Tree Hill, NC – 9 A.M. (L.C.)**

A small group of teenagers is playing basketball. They are being cheered on by another group of teens sitting on the benches next to the court. One of the teenagers, a girl, is holding a microphone in her hands.

"Good morning ladies & gentlemen and welcome to another fine day of Rivercourt Basketball. I'm your announcer for today, Gigi Salveri. And if you're not right here, watching this game. I can tell you things are gonna be HOT this morning. And I am NOT talking about the temperature."

Lucas walked towards the group and picked up the ball as it landed right in front of his feet. He knew most of the guys that were playing that morning so he knew it wouldn't be too big of a deal if he threw the ball towards the net.

After shooting the ball and scoring, he joined the group that was sitting on the benches. "Well whatta you know, Lucas Scott." He heard one of the boys say.

He decided to pay no regards to it and watched the game.

When Gigi spotted Lucas, she imediatly went over to him with her microphone. "Would you mind if I ask you some questions?" she asked while putting the microphone in front of his mouth. "Well, that depends on the question, but generally I don't mind." He replied jokingly. The young announcer continued: "So Lucas. Now that you've been away from the Tree Hill Ravens for a little over a year. Do you know how Mouth is doing at the moment?". A little surprised by the question, it took Lucas a while to form an answer. "Well, Gigi, I don't really know much about Mouth and his whereabouts. All I know is that he lives in California with Shelly Simon and that he's trying to get his announcering carreer off the ground." Gigi was a little dissapointed by the answer and decided to go back to the game.

**Annapolis, Maryland – 5.10 A.M. (L.T.)**

Rachel opened the inbox of her cellphone messages, actually it was an email Brooke had sent as a reply to her text message. Rachel knew for a fact that Brooke liked to sleep late and didn't like to get disturbed by anything while sleeping, so she found it strange that Brooke had answered her so soon. When she opened the message, she started to laugh outloud, uncontrollably. She hit the steeringwheel with the palm of her hand while she kept on laughing. Brooke had once again succeeded in amazing her. Rachel tried to control herself, looked down at the screen and read the message again to see whether or not the thing she had just read, was a right interpretation.

"**Hey Rachel**

**I can't wait to pick you up at the airport tomorrow. I've got this amazing new "outfit" I want you to see and hear your opinion about...but believe me, it's not much :-)****. Hope you're doing good in Maryland.**

**Did you know BTW that 75 of all breakups and divorces have something to do with the lack of sexual activity during the relationship? I think it's about time that we do something about our "lack off" before we end up somewhere in those percentages, don't you think?**

**Well, See you again tomorrow... oh...and come off the plane just a little exited will you? I promise it'll worth your while.**

**Love & Kisses**

**Brooke"**

After reading the message again, she noticed that the email had come with an attachement. She wanted to open it, but than realised that she probably had to wait until she had access to her computer to do so.

Than, she put her phone in her pocket again. For the third time she tried to drive away. She, once again, turned the car key and pressed her foot on the gass peddle. After the engine started running, she drove off to her hotel room.

When Rachel arrived at the hotel, she was greeted by the desk clerk. "Good morning, miss. Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I handed over my room card for safe keeping earlier today...room 356?" Rachel said with a tired voice. She wanted to go to sleep.

"Ah, yes. Here it is. Here you go Ma'am." The clerk said while he handed over the key to Rachel. "Have a nice day." He closed off the conversation.

Rachel walked towards the elevator and shared the small cabin with an elderly gentlemen. They payed no regards to eachother and Rachel got out on the 4th floor. She went through the hallway and stopped in front of her room, slid the card through the system and went inside.

Once inside her room she turned on the T.V. and flipped through the channels untill she'd seen enough and just put it on The Oprah Winfrey Show, where Transgenders were talking about their situation. She rolled her eyes out of boredom and went to the bathroom where she turned on the shower.

After having taken a shower, she slipped into some confortable clothing and slit under the bedlinnen where she fell asleep at the sound of an emotional transgender in the background, on T.V.

She fell asleep with a big smile on her face, as she thought about the things that where to happen the next day. When she would be back home and back with the woman she loved.

**Brooke's apartment, New York – early morning**

After Brooke had sent an email to Rachel, she decided that it was time to go to bed. After all, it had been a very long day. When she had closed her eyes, she was startled and was right awake again. Her cellphone was ringing.

Brooke looked down on the little screen and noticed that her friend Peyton was calling her. She picked up the phone and pressed a button. "Hey friend." She smiled, obviously tired. "Hey Brooke." She heard Peyton say, enthousiastically. "How have you been. It's been a while since I've been able to get a hold on you." She continued. Brooke didn't know whether she had to make up an excuse or just tell Peyton that she really hadn't been feeling like talking lately. She decided to tell the truth. "Yeah I know, I'm sorry. Its just that with the whole new C/B store opening and with the running of the office and the first business, I've been just waaay to exhausted to pretty much talk to anyone."

"Pretty much?" Brooke heard on the other side of the line. "Yeah, you know. I've been in contact with a lot of business associates and bank representatives to make sure everything's alright with the financing and everything." She said a little emberassed. "And than there's Rachel, who pretty much forces me to talk to her from time to time." She continued with a smirk.

"Oh, right. Rachel." Peyton answered sarcastically. "So where is the girl that took my place?".

Brooke started to get irritated, she did every time anyone made it look like Rachel was in it for the money, or if they said she tried to take Peyton's place all along. "Look, Peyt. We've been over this, haven't we? I mean... why does that have to come up every time someone gives me a call and I even dare saying her name?"

"It doesn't come up every time we talk. I just... okay, nevermind." Peyton aswered, seemingly annoyed. "No, come on. Spill." Brooke replied. Peyton thought about her answer for a while. She roled her eyes.

"Alright. It just seems that, since you and Rachel decided to move in together or to be a couple or whatever you guys are lately, you haven't been letting too many other people into your life."

"Is this about me, about Rachel or about us?" Brooke doubted.

"It's mostly about you. And I don't know how it ever came to that, but I think that it's gotta change. Sooner rather than later."

Brooke was still a bit disgruntled. Did Peyton just accuse her of being an einzelgänger (loner) since she was with Rachel?

Peyton continued: "But enough about that. So tell me, how have you been in these past couple of months?" Brooke was glad to hear that the entire conversation wasn't going to evolve around her personal life. Brooke started to smile. Her voice turned more friendly again. "It's going pretty good." she replied.

All of a sudden, Brooke went from happy to extatic in a matter of seconds. "Oh my God! I totally forgot to tell you, didn't I?"

Peyton became confused. "Tell me what exactly?" she wondered.

"You'll never guess where the new Clothes over Bros store is going to be opened?!" Brooke said while tip-toeing up and down. "Eughm. I don't know. Los Angeles?" Peyton asked.

"No!!" Brooke said, becoming more and more exited by the second. "So, where áre you going to open the new store?" Peyton asked, emphasising the word "are".

Brooke started to jump up and down in her apartment. "Tree Hill, North Carolina!" she yelled as she fell backwards on the double bed. "Whaat? No way!" she heard her friend say on the other side of the line. "You're going to open your store in Tree Hill? Are you sure that is a good idea?"

"I don't know, but that's where it's gonna be. Are you coming to the grand opening?" Brooke said, still exited. "I promise you, it's gonna be great. I'm sending off emails and text messages to everyone!" Brooke heard a small pause. "I don't know whether or not I'll be available, when is the opening?"

"I am not sure yet, but we're aiming for an opening within 3 months from now. I'll let you know when I get the exact date. Are you coming, please Peyton, Please??" Brooke pleaded to her friend.

**Rachel's agents assistant hotel, Annapolis, Maryland – 4 PM (L.T.)**

Rachel had woken up about an hour ago and took another shower. She had a meeting with an assistant of her agent so she wanted to look her best. After all, the man had travelled from New York to Maryland with her to have this appointment. She decided to go for the classic jeans jacket, (short) jeans skirt combo.

When she was done prepping herself, she went outside and called the cab that was going to take her to the Horn Point Inn, the hotel where he was staying.

After they arrived and she had payed the cabdriver, she took a moment to look around. It looked nice a nice place, very authentic. Victorian style almost. She got to the front desk. "Escuse Me?" She asked the desk clerk. The clerk looked up from her eyelids. "Can I help you ma'am?" the lady said uninterested. "Yeah, actually you can. I'm looking for the room of Mr. Ronald McIntyre." Rachel answered, annoyed by the lack of interest by the desk clerk. "Okay miss, I'll check it out for you." The clerk said, still with an uninterested voice.

After having checked the files in her computer the lady nodded. "You can find Mr. McIntyre in room 435. Do you want me to call his room to see if he's available?"

"No thanks." Rachel said while she looked around in the lobby. "Where's 435?" The desk clerk pointed out a map in the lobby. Rachel noticed she had to take the elevator to the 3th floor. "Is he in?", Rachel wondered.

The clerk looked at Rachel and than returned to her computer screen. While typing something with her keyboard she asked Rachel to wait.

A couple of seconds later, the woman looked up again. "Excuse me. Ma'am? Mr. McIntyre is indeed in his room."

"Thanks." Rachel said while walking towards the elevator.

When she arrived at room 435, she started to get a little nervous. It was the first time she would meet Robert McIntyre. Normally, her agent was supposed to meet up with her in Annapolis but due to curtain curcomstances, he was unable to attend the meeting. That's why he had sent his assistant.

Rachel knocked on the door and heard a soft masculin voice coming from the other side of the door. "I'm on my way." The voice said while the sound approached. After a little while, the door opened.

"Mr. McIntyre?" Rachel asked insecure. "Yes?" the man said questioning.

"Eugm. My name is Rachel Gatina. I was supposed to meet you here today?"

"Ah, yes. Miss Gatina. Do sit down." Robert McIntyre said politely. "Beverage maybe?" he asked.

As Rachel sat down on the appointed chair and looked around a little, she said "No thanks. I'm good."

**Tree Hill, North Carolina**

Lucas and Skills are playing basketball at the River Court while some younger onlookers are sitting on the benches.

"So, Luke. Have you seen Nathan lately?" Skills asked with a bit of a disgruntled voice. "Cuz I know i haven't." He continued.

"Well. I've seen him a couple of weeks ago. But according to Haley, he doesn't come out much." Lucas replied.

Skills held the ball in his hands and stopped playing for a while.

"How come?" he asked, while looking at the river. Lucas came closer to Skills and took the ball from his hands. He threw the ball towards the net. After scoring, he said. "Well, it seems like he had a little fight with Whitey. Haley said that it all went downhill after that."

"Wow, that sucks." Lucas heard Skills say with a dissapointed voice.

At that very moment, the onlookers looked to the other side of the street. A young brunette stepped out of a fancy car that had just stopped. Skills started smiling as the young woman approached the group.

"Wait. Is that...?" Skills heard Lucas say. "'T sure is." He replied as he and the girl got closer and closer together.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't Bevin Evan Mirsky-Taylor." Skills smirked. "Hiya babydoll" Bevin replied with a big smile on her face.

"I thought we went over this Mah. That whole babydoll thing might work with other guys but it aint working on me." Skills joked.

"Oh, I know." Bevin said. "I just wanted something to grab your attention...and?"

"And?" Skills asked. "And what?" Bevin rolled her eyes and waived her hair backwards. "What do you mean? And did it work silly?!?"

"Oh, like that. I guess it did since you kinda cought me off guard. Oh and by the way, lovin' the new color!"

Bevin smirked again and looked around the court. "So, hubby of mine, how are things here?" she said with her most southern accent. "Any news?"

Skills had to think for a while. He bounced the basketball a bit. "Nope, not really." He said. "But now you tell me. How's junior doing?"

As Skills asked the question, he saw Bevin glancing down to her stomach. "Everything A-okay." She said while rubbing her belly. As she said that, she quickly looked up. She looked surprised but in a good way. "Wha's up?" Skills asked her, a bit worried. "Anything the matter?" he continued.

"It kicked." Bevin said with a happy voice. "It felt so weird but it kicked." Skills' face lightened up. "For reals?" He asked. "Come here" Bevin said as she took Skills' hand and pointed out where she felt the baby kick just minutes before. "Now, just wait for it." She said.

After a while, Skills was the one looking surprised. "Well, whatta you know. It really does kick." He said, while laughing.

"Told ya." Bevin replied with a quirky voice.

**Rachel's agents hotel room – Annapolis, MD**

"So, Why did I have to come here?" Rachel said, seemingly uneasy. Mr. McIntyre looked up from his papers and looked at Rachel. He first checked her out from top to bottom, then went back up. Finally he looked straight into Rachel's eyes.

"Well, we're here to discuss your future at our company." The man said.

Rachel looked surprised. "My future at your company?" she asked. "What are you talking about?"

The man approached Rachel and sat down at a chair next to hers. He said: "Well, the boss has been thinking of putting you up a rank or two. That's why he arranged for this meeting so that I could talk to you about your goals for the future."

"Oh, like that." She said, still feeling weird. "What exactly does that mean?".

"It means, that we are supposed to talk about your aspirations, you know. Where you want to go with your carreer." He said. "Ofcourse, there are some other things we could be talking about. Or doing." He continued while putting his hand on Rachels thigh.

Rachel quickly stood up from her chair. Horrified, she looked at the assistant of her agent. "What the hell are you doing?" she yelled at him. "Hey, don't worry. Nothing happened." The man replied.

"Oh really? Than why did you just put your hand on my thigh?" Rachel raged on. "I think you are looking at this a bit too dark. I was just trying to asure you that everything will be alright if you are willing to." He said.

"If I'm willing to? I thought my signature on one of your contracts would be enough to show you that." She said.

"No, that shows that you want to. People that are willing to, should also be willing to do whatever it takes." The man said with a nasty tone in his voice.

Rachel, once again, looked at him in disgust. She decided that she didn't want to have anything to do with things like that and made her way to the door. As she turned to doornob, she heard McIntyre say: "Remember what you're giving up here. I've got your future in my hands."

She couldn't resist turning towards him. She walked up to him and slapped him on the face. "Oh I'll remember what I'm giving up. But I'd rather give that up than to give up my self-respect. You..." She slapped him again and gave him a knee-kick. "You

can tell your boss, that I quit."

As she saw Mr. McIntyre getting himself back together, she left the room and ran outside where she started to cry. She took up her cellphone and typed a text message. After doing that, she went for a walk.

**Brookes's apartment, NY – 4 A.M. (L.T.)**

Brooke got a rude awakening as her cellphone rang. It was Rachels TXT-tune. She opened up her eyes and got out of bed with a dazy look on her face. As the tune continued to play, she took her cellphone and opened up her inbox. As could be expected, it was a text message from Rachel

**Hey Brooke**

**I'm coming home earlier. Nxt plane (10 A.M. ur time)  
****Can u come'n pick me up?**

**Xoxo**

**Rachel**

Brooke didn't think much about it, sent back that she would be there and went back to bed.

END OF CHAPTER 2


	3. Chapter 3: airport drama

**_First of all, thanks for all the wonderful reviews we've been getting on this story... It's really nice to hear you're story gets so much support :) _**

**_This chapter is the second to last one...The climax will be posted in chapter 4 ..._**

**_Hope you guys like it!!_**

CHAPTER 3

**BWI airport – Annapolis, MD - day  
**

Rachel walks into the airport of Annapolis and looks on the monitors hanging on the walls. She gets concerned when the word "CANCELLED" appears next to almost every flight number. She decides to go to the help-desk.

As she gets closer to the desk, She spots a man running towards her. The man is being followed by a dozen or so airport security guards. The man almosts bumps into Rachel, than she has to avoid the security guards.

Even more confused than before, Rachel arrives at the help desk.

"Excuse me?" Rachel asked the young man behind the desk. He pretended like he didn't hear her and turned around. He got off his chair and searched through some boxes standing against the wall. "Excuse me?", Rachel repeated.

The apathical young man still didn't answer.

Rachel started to get a little aggitated. She was tired, had just almost been run over by a guy and a bunch of security guards, and now there was this little guy pretending like she wasn't there.

"HELLOOOO..;" Rachel said with a raised voice. "Hello, hey, you...helper boy."

Now, the young man did look up from his desk. He had a bit of an angry face and snapped while sighing: "What do you want?"

"What do I want?", Rachel repeated after the guy. "This is the "help" desk right? ..;than what do you think I want."

The boy looked at her, once again apathical. Than squeented his eyes a bit and said with a smirky smile on his face. "Excuse me ma'am. Can you please remain calm. Otherwise I cannot help you."

Rachel didn't know what she heard. "What?"

She shook up when an older man tabbed her on the shoulder. The man was wearing an orange vest and had a name-tag on the left side of the jacket. It read: "Mike Farlin – Airline Supervisor – Helpdesk."

Rachel turned towards the man. "yeah?", she asked.

The man looked her in the eyes and than looked at the young, apathical, desk clerk. Than he looked at Rachel again.

"I'm sorry, ma'am. What seems to be the problem?" the man asked. "Could you please calm down?"

Now Rachel knew why the young man was looking so victorious. She'd been duped. Now, the supervisor thought that she was the one causing problems while it was actually the desk clerk who didn't want to listen to her.

"What!?" Rachel sneered. "I have to calm down?" she continued.

"Exactly. It would be best for everyone." The airline supervisor said.

Rachel felt her rage building up but decided to calm down. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath afterwhich she exhailed profoundly. She took a moment to count back from 10 to 1 and found it helpful.

Rachel, once again, turned herself to the airline supervisor. She inhailed deeply once again and than said: "Hey."

Once again, the man looked at her. "Yes?"

"I just wanted to appologise for my behavior earlier. I just don't know what to do, all the screens say "flight cancelled", some guy was chased by the cops and almost ran me over. I just quit my job and I really, really, REALLY would want to go home now." Rachel blabbed.

"I was just wondering if there was somewhere we could talk. The desk-boy wasn't really paying any attention. That's why I became a little aggitated."

"Its okay." Said the man comforting. "I can understand that you're a bit confused, but you have to understand it's a really busy period right now." The man told Rachel to follow him. They continued their conversation in a seporate hallway.

About half an hour later, Rachel returned to the main corridor and sat herself down. She put her handbag between her legs on the floor, ducked down and opened the bag. She took out her laptop when she noticed the airport offered a free wireless internet connection. She wondered if Brooke was online at this time of day. Rachel knew that Brooke was probably at the office, but she also knew that Brooke had a soft-spot for logging onto her Yahoo-messenger when she wasn't busy.

She flipped the screen open and turned the computer on.

A little later, she noticed that she was lucky. Brooke was there!

She quickly logged on to Yahoo and doubleclicked on "Brooke".

"Hey Sweety." She started off the conversation.

"HEY!" Brooke answered her. "When are you arriving?"

Rachels facial expression changed as she typed. "Meh, it's gonna be a little longer. 'Perantly all flights are being cancelled this afternoon." It took Brooke a while to reply. "What?..why?" Brooke asked her, as she closed her message off with a crying smiley.

"There was this guy that pretty much ran over me when I first got here." Rachel typed. "'Perantly, he called the airport's main office to "warn" them about a bomb threat."

"What??" Brooke replied once again. "OMG, Honey, are you okay?" she continued. Once again Brooke closed her message with a smiley. A worried one this time.

Rachel started smiling. She knew that Brooke was a little worry-worth, but wasn't used to her showing it online like she did now.

"Don't worry, Brooke. I'm fine." She replied. "It just means that I, probably, won't be home before tomorrow afternoon, morning at the earliest." This time, Rachel closed off with a sighing smiley.

"Good!" Brooke replied. "So, tell me. What are we gonna do when you get here." She continued. "You know, it hás been a while."

Rachel started to feel slightly uncomfortable. With the bomb-threath at hand, who knew what the airport cameras where registering. "Broo-ooke, don't ...do that!"

In New York, Brooke looked at her computer screen with a surprised face. "What? Why not?" she wanted to know.

Back in Maryland, Rachel shuffled on her chair a bit. She looked around to see if no one was looking alongside with her. It would be quite the emberassement if it later turned out she'd had an onlooker.

After she was assured that she was typing solo, she wrote to Brooke: "Becau-ause...you're making me horney." Once again, she felt the need to post a smiley. A blushing one this time.

Brooke decided to throw some more oil on the fire: "So, What are you wearing?" she wrote. "Are you alone? ...and if so, can you take something off?"

Brooke began to giggle a bit as she noticed Rachel was trying to formulate an answer but wasn't quite able to do so.

She decided to free her lover from her unease. "Don't worry, babe. I'm just kidding."

Rachel now looked on her computerscreen with a face of relief. "Oh, no! You brought this on yourself girl. Tomorrow afternoon. You better be there!" she wrote back.

"Okay." Brooke Replied. "Shoot, Victoria's there...gotta go sweets." She typed quickly thereafter. "Okay, i'll send you my ETA when I find out myself." Rachel replied. "love you, TTYL" she typed than, before their conversation was cut short by Brooke logging off.

**Head Office, Clothes over Bros – New York, same time  
**

Victoria walked into Brooke's office with an angry face.

"What is this?", she yelled at Brooke. While she said it, she threw some magazines on Brookes desk.

"That..." Brooke said, "I think those are magazines, mom."

Victoria sighed, rolled her eyes and than looked up. "I know WHAT they are, I was talking about the trash that is being written INSIDE them." She explained with a stressful voice.

Brooke kept studying her mothers moves. She was amazed at the amount of stress Victoria seemed to stack up inside. "What's inside?" She asked with a small voice.

Victorias look changed, once again. Her angry look scared Brooke in a way. "What's inside?...What's inside you ask?" Victoria repeated. "What's inside is an interview of you."

Brooke looked up surprised. "Wait? Which magazine is that?" she wondered.

Victoria picked the magazines up again. She read the names out one by one while throwing the ones she'd already read, back on the table. "Seventeen", "World Weekly" and "Sun."

"And they're writing...what exactly?" Brooke asked, even more surprised now.

Victorias face turned even more evil. "That, according to you, You're thinking of selling the Clothes over Bros office in New York to move back to that...that...place."

"Well, I didn't say it like that." Brooke said a bit shy. Victoria now quickly looked at Brooke. "Than whát exactly did you say?" she asked.

"I might have said something about opening a store in Tree Hill and about moving there for a while to make sure everything goes as planned." Brooke said, now more sure of herself than a couple of minutes ago.

Victoria shook her head in disbelief. "You did whát?" She yelled at her daughter. "Are you insane?? Who put that stupid idea in your head?"

"..." Brooke wanted to reply but didn't get a chance to.

Victoria interupted: "Oh, no. Wait. I don't even wanna know. Let me guess..." she said. Than she fingerquoted: "The "love of your life" – Rachel.? Or is it that parasite, that so-called-friend of yours. What's her name; Peypa?"

Brooke got a bit mad. "No, mother." She replied while putting the emphasis on "mother". "Number one, her name is Peyton. Number two, she's not a parasite and last but not least, Rachel has nothing to do with Clothes over Bros." She sneered at Victoria.

Victoria started to laugh demonicly. "Nothing to do with Clothes over Bros? Don't make me laugh!" she said while pacing around the room. "You know as well as I do that that is just rediculous. She was the first "model" you hired." She continued her parade.

Brooke didn't know what to say. "So?", was the only thing she was able to come up with.

"Oh, Nevermind. You're just lucky that I'm here to take care of the business end of things. Can you imagine how fast this whole thing would go down the drain if you were in charge?" Victoria laughed. "Now, I'm sure you will come to your senses and stay here. There are plenty of other, not so important, people who would be glad to move to Tree Hill to look after the new store."

Brooke looked down to her desk. She was dissapointed in her mothers reaction but didn't know how to fight back. Throughout the years, she was drilled into listening to her mother. Brooke knew how ruthless Victoria could be if you got in her way. "Fine." She said while still looking down.

"Perfect." Victoria said happily. "Now the only thing we need to arrange is your future break-up with that girl and than we'll be settled for the future."

Brooke looked up surprised. "What break-up?" she asked her mother.

Victoria turned around as she was walking outside of Brooke's office. She looked Brooke in the eyes. "Please Brooke. You cannot seriously be thinking of spending the rest of your life with her. She's a wannabe-model and you're the executive of a big corporation. Could you imagine the headlines?"

Brooke looked up at her mother angrily. "Now you listen to me..." she began.

While Brooke said it, Victoria turned towards the door of the office and walked out. "Good bye Brooke." She said while with her back to brooke, waiving. "Don't forget tomorrow's board meeting"

Victoria left the office and walked outside. Brooke needed a moment to contemplate what had just happened and than returned to work.

**BWI airport, Annapolis – MD  
**

Rachel walked around in the airport. Since the flights had been cancelled, she had some hours to kill. She strolled around in the building, went to get some coffee and went into some of the small magazine stores, at least those would keep her occupied a little while the security staff of the airport would do their jobs.

As she went into one of the shops, she noticed some magazines with Brooke on the cover. She decided to buy them, since she always did that whenever her girlfriend made the cover.

She shuffled through the pages and smiled. She was curious to find out what the magazines had written about Brooke.

Her exitement deminished when she saw the headline in one of the magazines. It read: "Brooke Davis, fashion oportunista, happily single."

She knew that tabloids were often uncorrect when it came to Brookes personal life, but she also felt heartbroken everytime she had to read how little they knew about it and yet making assumptions.

Rachel decided to put the worries behind her. After all, she was the one that had been together with Brooke for the past couple of years, not the press, not Lucas, not Victoria.

She rejoiced everytime she thought of the long, deep conversations the two had had since they met all those years ago. They hadn't always been able to get along, but somehow, somewhere in time, they learned to appreciate eachothers company.

It all started from there. All it took was one single conversation at a surtain point in time, and they both knew it. It had taken a while before they had both been ready to aknowlege their feelings towards eachother, and to share it with the world, but it had been worth it. The heart aches, the pain, the insecurities and the doubt, they all led up towards them being able to enjoy every minute they spent with eachother.

And there she stood, alone in an airport she had only been in briefly when she arrived in Maryland.

Yet again, she felt dissapointed. All she wanted to do was to go home and to lay herself down next to the woman she loved so much.

_ **RRrrt RRrrt**_

A short and soft roaring sound, seemingly coming from no where.

**_ RRrrt RRrrt_**

Again, the same sound, only more profound this time.

Than Rachel knew what was going on.

She picked up her purse and began ruffeling through it.

**_ RRrrt RRrrt_**

It was her cellphone. As Rachel noticed the sound, she picked up her phone, slid it open and answered it while she looked at the empty tarmac.

"Hello?" She asked.

"Oh, Hello." She heard and unformiliar voice say at the other end of the line. "Is this Rachel Gatina?"

Rachel looked surprised. The number that had appeared on her screen was one she hadn't seen before. "Yeah, that's me." She said surprised.

"Excellent." The female voice on the other side said. "Hello Miss Gatina. My name is Nicole Wilson and I'm one of the assistants of your modeling agent, Peter Long." The lady on the other side of the line spoke. "I am sorry to call you so unexpectedly, but Mr. Long wanted to speak to you about your appointment with Mr. Mcintyre."

Rachel, who was still angry about the stunt Mr. Mcintyre had pulled when she came to see him, hesitated a bit.

"Okay." Was the only thing she said.

"One moment please, I'll put him through."

A couple of seconds passed. To Rachel, it seemed much longer as she thought about Mr. McIntyre again.

She heard a small "click" at the other end of the line. "Rachel, are you still there?" a man with a heavy voice said.

Rachel felt a bit more self-secure than a few moments ago. She knew Mr. Long was a good guy who'd listen to what she had to say. "Yeah, I'm still here. Listen, about McIntyre..."

Mr. Long disrupted Rachel

"Yeah, about that. I heard things didn't exactly go as planned?" he asked the redhead.

"You did?" Rachel asked surprised.

"Yeah, I did." Mr. Long said. "Your girlfriend called me to ask why you were coming home earlier. It seems like you've sent her a couple of cryptical messages about Ronald. Tell me, Rachel, what's it about?"

Now, Rachel was even more surprised. She didn't think Brooke would call Mr. Long about her coming home earlier.

"Wait. Brooke called you about this?" she said. "What did she tell you?"

Mr. Long paused briefly, as if he was formulating an answer. Than he sighed. "She told me something about the fact that you were coming home early for some reason you didn't wanna talk about yet, and she wanted to know if I had anything to do with it."

"Sorry." Rachel appologised to her agent. "So I guess you wanna know the reason why I'm going home early?" she said, slightly emberassed.

"That would be a nice start. I'd also wanna know why you were going back to New York without informing me about it." Mr. Long said, a little demanding.

Rachel paused. She had completely forgotten about giving out notices that she would be going back home. Than she took a deep breath and started to explain what was going on. After the passing of each sentence, her voice sounded louder, more angry and infurated.

"First of all, Ronald McIntyre is a fucking sleasy, dirty, massogenous pig who thinks he can get away with whatever he wants because he's an assistant to a modeling agent."

"Rachel" Mr. Long interrupted

"Secondly, I'd rather quit modeling completely or die before ever having to work with him again. Thirdly, If he ever comes near me again, I'll make sure he'll live to regret that day for the rest of his life.

"Rachel", he said once again.

"And last but not least; I didn't call on me going back to New York because I simply forgot about it. After almost being RAPED, I think I've earned the right to forget one stupid phonecall ... and than another thing..."

"Rachel...Rachel, calm down and listen to me." Mr. Long repeated. "I know you're upset about what happened but just try to relax, okay? Look, I don't mind that you're going home already, you were sceduled to leave in a few days anyway. I just wanted to know if you're alright."

Rachel in- and exhailed loudly again, trying to regain her ease. Luckily for her, Mr. Long knew that she could be short tempered if something happened she didn't like.

"I'm alright. As long as I don't have to work with him again, I'll be fine." She said calmly over the telephone. "And if he calls you, or if you see him...just tell him that I wíll be filing complaint and that he can expect notice of it."

Mr. Long was relieved that he got Rachel to chill down. "Okay, I'll do that." He spoke calmly to the knuckle-headed-redhead. "As long as you promise me to stay calm about this."

"Fine." He heard on the other side of the line.

_ DING DONG - Please do not leave luggage unattended; unattended luggage will be removed and possibly destroyed - DING _

"What was that?" Mr. Long said with a questionable tone in his voice. "Did you say something?"

"What? Oh, no. I didn't. It was the "airport voice" telling me that I shouldn't leave my bags alone." She said with a sarcastic smirk on her face.

"Say what?"

Rachel continued to smile. "You know. The voice over the intercom that says: "please do not leave luggage unattended, unattended luggage will be removed and possibly destroyed."

She could imagine Mr. Longs reaction. "Oh. Like that." The man said.

_ DING DONG – Will the passengers for the flight to Kennedy Airport in New York, flightnumber AA-4712, please go to gate 8. More information about your flight will be given to you there. Boarding of the aircraft will start within half an hour. Thank you.  
__ DING DONG – Please do not leave luggage unattended; unattended luggage will be removed and possibly destroyed. – DING _

Rachel, who looked up from her cellphone to hear the intercom voice, realised she had to go. "Mr. Long?...Sorry to cut you off, but I gotta go. My plane's gonna start boarding soon."

She put down her cellphone after Mr. Long said "Okay."

Rachel was standing pretty close to gate 8, so she was one of the first people arriving there.

When a croud had gathered at the gate, a few American Airlines employees came towards them. Much to everyone's surprise, they had brought 2 German Shepperds (sniffer dogs). As the AA'ers came closer, the dogs went through the people who were waiting to be boarded. They went by person after person.

Than, all of a sudden, Rachel felt something wet against the back of her hand. She hadn't really been paying a lot of attention, so she was surprised.

It was "dog 1", who was scanning her.

She was glad to see the dog passed her by without a problem. She knew that she didn't have anything illegal on (or in) her. But it would've been too typical if one of the dogs would sit down next to her, as a sign that she had something on her.

"Well...guess good ol' Murphey passed me by this time." She thought to herself with a big smile on her face.

After the dogs had sniffed their way through the crowd, the AA employees put down a little stool. As they were standing on it, they gestured everyone to calm down and to be more quiet.

One of them, a middle-aged woman, raised her voice and said: "Excuse me, sirs, madams. As you can see, Everything is going a little slower as usual. The reason for that is that we have been warned,at the autority of the government of the United States, to be extra careful today. Hencing the sniffer dogs you've seen while they passed you."

"Boarding will begin momentarilly, so please have your passport, ID-card and boarding ticket ready as you pass through this gate. As you can see, these two gentlemen are carrying metal detectors. As you pass this gate, they will screen you in search for possible weapons or sharp objects you may have on you at this very moment. Please remain calm during this process. We already have a delay of several hours on this flight, so we would like this to go as fluently as possible."

"We will first board the people who are to sit in business class and those who have dissabilities. If you fall under that last cathegory, please have your dissability card, handed out by a licenced doctor, ready as well.

Than, we will start boarding Economy class by number. Please only get in line when the number on your boarding ticket is part of the numbers being called out by one of our staff-members. Thank you for your attention and have a safe flight."

The woman got off the stool and opened up the gate.

Rachel, who was boarding first class, was glad she was one of the first to step onboard.

As the time went by, more and more people found their seats on the aircraft. After a while, everyone had boarded and the plane started to move. Rachel felt a known sensation when the plane finally left the tarmac.

After having spent an entire afternoon and night at the airport, she was happy she was finally going home.

the little lights above the seats went out, the pilote spoke through the intercom. "Good morning Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. You are currently flying flight AA-4712 from BWI-Airport in Baltimore, New York to Kennedy Airport, New York, New York. First of all, we want to appologise for the delay. The flight attendants will be there for you throughout the flight. Local time in New York is the same as that in Maryland. Temperatures in New York run up to 78 degrees fahrenheit or about 25 degrees centigrade. The flight BWI-JFK will probably take about one hour and fifteen minutes. We hope you will have a wonderful flight and thank you for flying American Airlines."

After having listened to the captain, Rachel popped up her table and took her laptop out of her bag.

As she saw Brooke was online again, she took out her headset to _SKYPE_


	4. Chapter 4: The Grand Finale

_**Hey, sorry it took so long for this part to appear...we had some stuff to do before we could finish it :)**_

_**Hope you like it...its the final part ..meaning a big season finale LOL**_

**--**

CHAPTER 4

In New York, Brooke was happy to see the profile of her lover turning from off- to online. After re-assuring herself that Victoria was no where to be seen, she decided to see if Rachel was due to be home soon.

Rachel turned up the sound of her laptop and her headset, just to make sure she could hear everything alright and didn't have to yell whilest in the plane. She also made sure she had her webcam on.

"Hey Bitch", Rachel opened up the conversation. How's my busy little working-bee?

Brooke looked into the camera and smiled.

"Hey slut." She joked back.

A lot of other couples would find an opener like that offensive, especially towards eachother. For Brooke and Rachel on the other hand, it was shared history. They had started off as nothing more or less than near-mortal-enemies and had continued to call eachother that way, in a loving way, ever since.

"So, any chance you'll be home tonight?" Brooke wondered. "There is that ...thing we were talking about the other day."

"Yeah, I know." Rachel said. "I hope to be home by about 10 P.M.".

"So, any idea why your plane was delayed before?" Rachel heard Brooke say on the other side of the com-link.

Rachel took a moment to think about the events that happened

"Nope, no idea. All I know is that there where a lot of planes delayed...well, all of them. And that we got sniffed before we entered the plane."

Brooke was confused. "Sniffed?"

"Yeah, you know. Some customs people with German Sheppards. The dogs sniff around the passengers to see if they're not carrying any drugs or anything like that."

"Ooh, right." Brooke answered with a somewhat relieved tone in her voice. "So, did they find anything?"

Rachel rolled her eyes, eventhough she knew Brooke couldn't see it.

"ha-ha-ha, really funny."

"No, really. Seeing your past and all..." Brooke continued jokingly.

"Yeah, I know." Rachel answered, while sighing.

Brooke didn't want to continue the conversation on a negative tone. They had been missing eachother for far to long to end a conversation with a fight.

"On another note. Are you gonna tell me what happened between you and Ronald McIntyre, or do I have to drag it out of you?"

Rachel looked around a little. "Brooke, hardly the time or the place to talk about that. If we talk about this now, the entire plane is gonna know about it. And that is one of the last things I need right now."

"Right." Brooke said. She had forgotten about the fact that Rachel couldn't speak freely at the moment. "Kinda forgot you were in a plane" she said while laughing.

The 2 young women both looked into the camera of their computer. As if they were trying to look into eachothers eyes.

"You do know I am making a complete ass out of myself, right?" Rachel joked while she noticed people looking in her direction.

Brooke was confused. "You are?"

Rachel looked at her computer screen again. "Yeah, I am. I look like a geek!"

"How so?" she heard Brooke say.

"Well, the fact that I am staring at a computer screen is one factor. The main reason, though, is the fact where I seem to be talking to myself AND the computer screen. Please remind to buy one of those huge webcams next time I buy a laptop."

Brooke jokingly looked into her camera. Than she took a black marker and paper and started writing.

After she was done writing, she held the paper near the camera.

It read:

"Note to Rach – huge Cam w/ nxt lappy"

Rachel started giggeling at the sight of the piece of paper.

"What are you laughing about?" Brooke said while putting the paper in her notebook.

"That thing kinda reminded me of those corny little "Clean Tean" flyers Shelly used to pass around during class."

Brooke envisioned the same flyers and started laughing as well.

She didn't know why, but talking about High School always made her miss the life she had than. The life without the responsability, without the carreer, the limelight. Just life, friends, boyfriends, acting insane and getting drunk at one of Nathan's parties. Sure there were things she regretted, one of which was the getting drunk so often thing, but overall, it was just so much easier being in highschool.

"Do you remember when you walked in on me... eughm...in the cabin" Brooke said while she continued laughing.

"How could I forget?" Rachel said, a little louder.

"Thanks for waiting at least 4 hours before telling everyone though." Brooke continued. "I don't know what I would have done if you would've told Haley & Peyton about it at the spot."

After taking a couple of seconds pause, she continued: "I could kill you when you used it during "I never" though."

"Hey, I appologied for that thouroughly a couple of months later, didn't I?" Rachel said quickly. "I sure as hell didn't hear any complaints"

"Ofcourse not!" Brooke said. "Your first attempt of making up was... successful to say the least."

Both girls smiled when remembering the first time they had ever made love to eachother.

_Flashback _

Completely complying to Tree Hill-regulation, Rachels parents were away on business trips. Nathan was throwing a victory party over beating Pontiac with tripple digits. It had started out as a party such as every other. But than, just as it was coming to an end, a huge storm broke. Brooke and Peyton, who came to the party in the same car, got stranded because Peyton's car engine got flooded.

Rachel offered to give them rides home. Brooke didn't trust it because her and Rachel were like water and fire.

Peyton, who didn't want to walk home in the storm, convinced Brooke to take up on the offer. Rachel drove her Denali closer to them as Brooke called shotgun and Peyton got in in the back.

When they had reached Peyton's house, Brooke and Peyton both got out of the car. Brooke had some stuff in Peyton's house that she needed to get before she could go home. Rachel, who proved not to be the most horrible person in the world after all, got out of the car to help out too.

When Brooke and Rachel got back in the car, they both started laughing because they looked like they had spend the day in a swamp. Rachel invited Brooke over to her house to warm and dry up.

Once arrived at the house, Rachel drove her Denali in the garage and they quickly went inside. Rachel went upstairs to get a change of clothing for her and Brooke while Brooke walked around on the downstairs area, looking at the pictures and at the little details. She loved touring through other people's houses, just to see how they lived and how they organised things.

She stopped at a small closet. It was a dark-brown Oak closet. The first thing she noticed where the scented candles. As she picked them up to smell them and to read the labels, she noticed smells of Lime, Musk, cinnamon and wild roses. Eventhough she had found it to be a strange combination. It was also nice in a special way.

As she put back the candles in the right order, her eyes gazed off to a picture standing in the middle of the candles. It was a picture of Rachel. One of the first things she realised was that the Rachel on the picture, was not the same Rachel as she thought she knew. The Rachel on the picture looked mischieveous but calm. Her eyes piercing through the camera lens with an intensity Brooke had not often seen before. There was nothing sexual in the picture, nothing extravagant. For the first time, she felt like she was looking át Rachel, not to a facade created to survive High School. The facade, Brooke could live without. The real Rachel, she got more and more intrigued about.

When she picked up the photo and turned it around, she could read: "40th wedding anniversary" on the backside. She assumed the picture was taken at a party or something like that.

Brooke didn't notice Rachel had come down the stairs.

"What are you doing?" Rachel asked.

Brooke quickly put the picture down and turned around. "Nothing", was all she could think of.

Rachel smirked. "I'm not gonna bite you know." She said to a clearly flabbergasted Brooke. "Actually I've been standing here for quite some time, so I knew what you were doing."

"Than why did you...?"

Rachel continued with a smile on her face: "I just wanted to see how you would handle the pressure."

"Why didn't you say anything?" the brunette wanted to know.

"Lets just say I like to observe." Rachel answered. She tossed some clean, dry clothing over at Brooke. "For some reason, people nowadays seem to think that you get invited into another persons home just to stand in the hallway."

Brooke was now even more surprised.

"I'm just saying that its not forbidden to walk around a bit", Rachel continued, just to make Brooke feel more comfortable.

"Oh, like that."

Rachel smiled again. "And besides, nothing wrong with the view either."

"Meaning?"

Rachel turned her eyes a bit, unbeknownst to Brooke. "Hellow – message, meet silver platter, silver platter, this is message."

Brooke was willing to do a lot of things. Making an ass out of herself, however, was not one of them. "Oh", she said, just to make Rachel believe that she knew what Rachel was talking about.

"Oh?" Rachel asked. "So, I guess you know what I'm talking about?"

"Definatly!" Brooke confirmed. Actually she had no idea.

"And, you don't mind?" Rachel asked.

"Nope, I don't know why I should."

"Exactly." Rachel said. "And besides, I don't know why people would feel weird about it anyways."

"Right." She heard Brooke say.

She squeented her eyes a little bit as she took Brooke by the hand and dragged her by the arm. "Come on, Follow me."

Brooke was somewhat surprised by Rachel suddenly pulling her arm, so she had no choise but to follow. "Where are we going?"

Rachel continued to drag Brooke along as she said: "Just come along. Don't worry! I've got something to show you."

Interested and curious about what Rachel was going to show her, Brooke just followed.

They went up the stairs and to the right. Than, they went into the third door on the left.

As Brooke looked inside, she noticed it was a bedroom. It was quite big. 2 double beds, purple walls, nic-nacs on a sidetable.

"Well, neet-o" Brooke said jokingly. "At least you keep your room neat and tidy."

"Oh, shut up." Rachel said defeated. "Come here, I've gotta show you something."

Brooke approached Rachel until they were but a few inches away from eachother.

"So, what did you think of the picture you were looking at downstairs?" Rachel asked, as to set a more at ease atmosphere.

Brooke didn't know how to answer the question. She decided to go around the subject a bit. "It didn't really match the image I had of you."

"I would imagine so." Rachel answered shortly.

Brooke looked at Rachel and noticed the redhead was smiling. "How so?" she wanted to know.

All of a sudden, Rachel pulled Brooke in and planted a kiss on her lips.

Brooke pulled back. "What are you doing??"

Rachel didn't reply. She came closer to Brooke and looked her in her eyes. "sssht." She whispered to Brooke while putting her index finger on her mouth. "Just relax."

As if Rachels raspy voice worked soothing on Brooke, she felt a sense of calm going over her.

When Rachel stepped in for a next attempt, Brooke surrendered herself completely and they kissed passionatly. Brooke pushed Rachel backwards until they were both lying on the bed.

Rachel continued kissing while working her way on top of Brooke. Brooke was defenseless against Rachel exploring her way from Brooke's lips, cheeks, down to her neck. Brooke chuckled as she felt Rachel's warm breath coming down her neck, which was still cold and wet by the rain.

Rachel zipped down Brookes jacket and quickly took off her shirt. Than she worked her way down Brookes chest.

Brooke took over control when she flipped Rachel on her back. Slowly taking time to observe Rachels reaction to her actions and slowly undressing Rachel.

They played around a little, laughing while flipping eachother over. Using the warmth of their breath to arrowse the other and using the warmth of their bodies to warm up the other, still wet by the rain. Each reclaiming control after the other one did their part.

Later that night, they fell asleep in eachothers arms. One not more or less satisfied than the other, but knowing that something in their lives had changed forever.

_End of flashback _

Brooke looked back in the camera. "Wait, did you just have the same thought as I did?" she wondered.

"I think so." Rachel said while smiling. "This is gonna be an interesting evening."

Brooke checked her scedule and noticed she didn't have to be present at C/B the next day. "That'll work out for me, I don't have to work tomorrow."

Rachel looked at Brooke with a happy smirk on her face. "You planned this didn't you?"

"Planned what?"

"Tonight, dumbass – Duh!" Rachel continued jokingly.

Brooke looked into the camera with an innocent gaze. "Who knows??"

"What if we do it all over again?" Rachel proposed

"What? ... do what over?"

"That thing we were both thinking about." Rachel said while looking at the camera firmly.

"Oh." Brooke said. "Okay, lets do that."

"Okay than, its a date."

Rachel looked outside through one of the windows. The sun was piercing in her eyes and she was happy to, almost, be home with Brooke.

She had always loved New York, but always seemed to forget about it when she was actually there. It was on moments that she had to go away, that she realised how much she really missed it.

**Head Office, Clothes over Bros – New York, 8.10 P.M.**

As Brooke was checking the net for new, interesting business partners overseas, Millicent came in.

Brooke looked up from her computer screen and noticed Milli was carrying a lot of paperwork for her to do.

"Milli, please..no more!" She said beggingly. She had been filling in paperwork for days now and it still seemed to come in as a neverending stream of chopped down trees.

Mllicent was confused. She thought she did something wrong. "what?"

"More paperwork?" Brooke said with a bored, tired and dissapointing tone in her voice. "If I have to fill out one more piece of paper today, I will scream."

Eventhough Millicent was worried about Brooke, she realised there was no other option. "Sorry." The girl said. "But this has to be done by tomorrow. There's a big shipment coming in and these papers have to be given to the delivery guy after completion."

Brooke sighed. "Yeah, I know. I'll get them done as soon as possible."

"Okay" Brooke heard Millicent say.

Millecent began walking out of the office. Before she could reach the door, she was stopped by her employer.

"Milli?"

Millicent turned around and noticed Brooke was checking her appointments.

"Yeah?" she asked

She noticed Brookes face turning mischievious.

Brooke shyly looked down, to the top of her desk. "Do I..have any important appointments in the next couple of days?

Millicent returned to Brookes desk and put her own papers on it. "Wait, lemme check", she said in a friendly way. "Well, you've got an important meeting with some investors next wednesday. Nothing that can't be resceduled before that. Or so it seems."

Brooke got a smile on her face, this was the answer she was hoping for. "Excellent!" she said while sounding a little too exited. "Can you rescedule all appointments between tomorrow and next wednesday, pretty please?"

Millicent was, once again, confused. She didn't know why she had to rescedule the appointments so was at loss for a reason to call it off.

Brooke noticed the girls confusion.

"Just tell them that I came down with something, tell them I have food poisening" She said.

Millicent looked surprised. " First of, didn't you get that from a movie? And secondly, can I ask why?" Millicent wanted to know. She had no problem covering up for her boss, but was intrigued to know why she was asked to do it.

Brooke stood up from her desk and walked to one of the file cabinets. She took out a red folder and flipped through it. Than, she sighed and threw the folder on her desk.

She returned her focus to Millicent. "Nothing much really. Rachel is coming home tonight and I was thinking to go somewhere. Don't really know where yet though."

Millicent always liked to hear the stories of the "Brooke & Rachel adventures". Over the months she had worked with Clothes/Bros, she had established a good relationship with Brooke and Rachel. "Aww, that's so sweet. I'm so happy to hear she's coming home. And, don't worry about the appointments. I'll rescedule every single one of them." She confirmed.

"Excellent!" Brooke said with an even more exiting tone in her voice.

As Brooke returned to filling out documents for tomorrow's cargo, Millicent wrote down that the appointments had to be resceduled. Than she picked up her papers from Brooke's desk and returned to the door. She turned around and glanced at Brooke before leaving the office.

RRrrt RRrrt

Brookes phone started buzzing. She had put it on "vibrate", as she always did when she was working.

RRrrt RRrrt

Again the phone buzzed. Brooke quickly picked it up and noticed a text message from Rachel:

"**Hey sweets,**

**Plane'll land 9.26 pm aprx. Can you pick me up?**

**Love**

**Rach"**

Brooke was glad to find out that Rachel would be home half an hour before scedule but also realised that, if she was to pick up Rachel on time, she would have to leave her office soon.

She decided to text back.

" '**ll be there, can't wait.**

**Xoxo**

**Brooke"**

**John F. Kennedy Airport – New York, 9.50 P.M.**

At the arrivals exits, Brooke was waiting for Rachel. She was anxious to see her again, as it had been a while. A lady who stood next to her began a conversation. "So, who are you waiting for?" she asked. "A family member?"

Brooke thought a while before answering the question. "Yeah, a family member, my girlfriend actually" she replied.

The lady looked at Brooke with a soft and loving look in her eyes. "I'm waiting for my son. He's coming home after spending 5 months in Europe."

"Wow, 5 months. Any special reason why he was there, or did he just go there for a vacation?"

"He travelled all through Europe, just for the heck of it." The lady said happily. "One night he came up to his father and I and told us he was leaving the next week. All we could do was tell him to be carefull and to have a good time." She smiled.

Brooke listened to the lady's stories. Eventhough she had never met her before, she found the lady to be an interesting speaker, especially since she seemed to talk about her son with so much love in her voice. It also got her to forget the time for a while.

Before they both knew it, the first arrivals came through the door, followed by cheers and cries by family members.

Brooke was glad to see the lady being able to embrace her son again. She, only than, realised that she had never asked for the ladies' name. The lady said her farewells to Brooke and pointed to her son proudly and with teary eyes. After Brooke had aknowleged them, they walked to the exit together, arm in arm and left the building.

Arrival after arrival came through the gate, but still no sign of Rachel. Brooke began to get worried.

Her worries got bigger and bigger as the initial flow of arrivals decreased and no one seemed to come through the door anymore. She looked around really carefully...No Rachel.

About half an hour later, almost everyone had left.

Than, as brooke looked down at the floor tiles, the door opened. As Brooke slowly looked up, she noticed a woman coming through the door.

When she looked up hopefully, she noticed the lady who came through was a stewardess.

Her tension began to rise again. Especially after she saw another group of people coming out, they all seemed to be working for American Airlines.

Than, she heard a laugh that sounded too formilliar not to be someone she knew. It was Rachel. She was talking to one of the airline employees and laughing.

"Rachel!" Brooke said, in an almost yelling voice. She was happy to see Rachel again and began striding towards her.

Rachel looked up at Brooke and let go of her luggage cart. Brooke looked even more beautiful as she could remember. It had been such a long time since they saw eachother in person. To the best of her abilities (she was wearing high-heeled-leather-boots and jeans), she ran towards Brooke and planted a long kiss on her lips.

To allow themselves to breath, they stopped for a while. "What took you so long?" Brooke asked Rachel while playfully tabbing her on the shoulder.

Rachel noticed Brookes teary eyes and could hardly hold herself together. "Sorry." She said. "One of the stewardess' is a friend of mine from when I was living in New Jersey a few years ago, right before I moved to Tree Hill. We were just catching up."

Brooke looked at the girl she knew Rachel had been talking to. "I guess that's her?"

"Yeah." Rachel said simply. "That's Cathrin – Can we go now?"

Brooke was glad to hear Rachel's eagerness to go home. "Sure we can. Let's go'n get your bags first."

Brooke and Rachel walked towards the cart arm in arm, constantly whispering things into eachothers ear and laughing.

**Brooke and Rachel's appartment – New York, after midnight**

Brooke threw her keys and hand bag on the table while getting into the appartment. She than put one of Rachels bags into a corner of the appartment. Than, she helped Rachel with the bags she was holding.

"...So, let me get this straight. That Mr. McIntyre tried some tricks on you, and expected you to sleep with him?" Brooke angrily asked Rachel.

When they had put the bags away, they planted themselves into their lounge-couch.

"Home at last!" Rachel said happily and with an official tone in her voice.

"Been a while" Brooke replied, as she snuggled up closer to Rachel and layed her head on Rachel's shoulder. "So, got any plans?"

"I can think of a thing or two." Rachel continued while repeating her "Yahoo-messenger"-conversation.

While saying it, Rachel removed Brookes head from her shoulder and went into the bathroom to put on something for the night. When she returned, she noticed Brooke had done the same and was looking at her.

Rachel could see Brooke's eyes lighting up in the dark and approached the couch slowly.

Brooke, on her turn, looked at Rachel and felt the exitement rising.

Rachel snuggled upto Brooke and whispered something in her ear. Brooke layed back, flat on her back, in the couch and kissed Rachel in her neck. She kissed her again, and again and than opened Rachels robe.

Rachel lifted up Brookes top and kissed her abdomen, using her tongue to go down from her spleen to her belly button and back. Going back up – breathing heavily in Brookes neck.

Than, Brooke planted a kiss on Rachel's lips and made her way down. The air was filled with tension, caused by weeks of deprivation and being seporated from one another.

"So. Wanna go to the bedroom?" Brooke asked Rachel, while still breathing heavily. "Let's go." Rachel said.

Brooke and Rachel quickly made their way to the bedroom.

**Brooke and Rachel's appartment bedroom – New York, later**

"That didn't take long." Brooke joked while lying in Rachel's arms.

Rachel looked down at Brooke. "Well, at least not the first time ... or the second one." She replied jokingly. "It was exhausting though." She continued.

Brooke now looked up at Rachel untill they looked into eachothers eyes. "Sometimes, exhausting is neccesary".

"True." Rachel replied.

**Brooke and Rachel's appartment – New York, the next day at noon**

"Hey sweety" Brooke said as Rachel came out of the bedroom. "How was your night?"

"Awesome" Rachel replied as she sat herself down at the table. "Yours?"

"Same." Brooke simply said. "Hey, I came up with a crazy idea yesterday, you wanna hear it?"

Rachel looked up at Brooke, who was making toast with jam in the kitchen. "A crazy idea huh? Sure. Spill."

Brooke continued to put jam on the toasted pieces of bread. "Well, I was wondering how you would feel about going away from New York for a week or so?"

"Leave New York?" Rachel was surprised. "But what about the company?"

Brooke looked at Rachel as she put her tumb in her mouth to remove some of the jam that she had spilled. "I've asked Millicent to rescedule all of my appointments till next week. Just thought it would be a nice idea to go back to Tree Hill for a while."

Rachel took a sip of her coffee "Tree Hill huh?", she said. "Got any plans?"

"Nope, not really. Just to hang out with the guys again, talk about life. You know."

"Ah, I see." Rachel said. "Sounds good to me."

"Excellent!" Brooke said as she went through one of the dressers. "I was hoping you would say something like that, so I already got the tickets. We're leaving tonight."

Rachel choked on her coffee. "Tonight?! Honey, isn't that a little...fast?"

"Might be, might not be." Brooke said a little mysteriously. "So, are we going?"

"Sure." The redhead replied.

**Brooke and Rachel's appartment – Tree Hill, North Carolina – The following day.**

"So, are we gonna pay a surprise visit to K.C.?" Brooke said as she was reading a magazine.

Rachel looked up in surprise. "You wanna take a surprise visit to Kentucky Fried Chicken??"

Brooke looked up and started to laugh. "No, Not K.F.C. – K.C., you know. Karens Café."

"Whoops, my bad." Rachel said as she walked over to Brooke and hugged her. "Sure. Lets go."

**Karens Café – Tree Hill, North Carolina – a little later**

Brooke and Rachel arrived at the Café. The curtains were closed and it was completely empty.

Rachel looked at the door and turned to Brooke, who was standing behind her. "Eughm, don't mean to dissapoint you. But it seems kinda closed from where I'm standing."

"I've got a key". Brooke said as she went through her purse and wiggled the key in front of Rachels face.

Rachel looked at Brooke doubtful. "Isn't that kinda illegal?" she said.

"Karen will understand."

Brooke put the key in the lock and turned it around. They went inside. The inside was completely dark, as expected, there didn't seem to be anyone.

After their eyes had gotten used to the darkness, they moved towards the counter. Rachel looked around. "Brooke what are we doing here?"

All of a sudden, the lights went on. "SURPRISE!"

Rachel & Brookes eyes now had to get used to the light. After a short while, they were able to look around.

Lucas, Karen, Lilly, Haley, Nathan, Jamie, Deb, Peyton, Bevin, Skills, Mouth, Shelly, Millicent, Junk and Fergie appeared from everywhere and nowhere. From behind chairs, tables, the counter and the stools.

Rachel was flabbergasted. "Wha- Wha- What's going on?"

Brooke looked at Rachel victoriously. "Surprise." She said.

"Wait, you did this?" Rachel asked.

"Yup, All Me." Brooke smiled. "I arranged a little get together."

Rachel looked around once again, still surprised to see all of their friends there. "Why?"

"I just wanted them to be here." Brooke replied.

Rachel looked at Brooke, still wondering what Brooke was talking about. She than turned her attention to Bevin, hoping that she would tell her what was going on.

"Bevin?"

"Oh shush. Be patient." Bevin said with a gigantic smirk on her face.

"Rachel?" – Rachel heard someone saying her name. She looked around to figure out the source, but couldn't find it.

She heard it again. "Rachel?" – As she turned around, she noticed the person saying her name was Brooke.

"Yeah?"

Brooke turned Rachel towards her and pulled her closer. "I've got a question to ask you."

"You do?" Rachel asked surprised. "Okay."

"Okay, here goes nothing."

Rachel looked around as she saw Bevin holding up her tears and Karen putting her hands in front of her mouth. The rest was watching in awe.

Brooke sighed, than looked into Rachels eyes.

"Rachel. We have been through quite a lot of good things together … but an almost equal amount of bad things. And somehow, we've always managed to keep this thing going. Eventhough we've both got our share of a negative past, we've both been able to move forward with our lives and to look past the negative. We went from being enemies, to being friends – and later more. Every important step in my life I took with you and I can't imagine life without you anymore. Not after everything we've been through..."

Rachel looked deep into the teary eyes of her girlfriend.

"Brooke, what are you..."

Brooke silenced Rachel by putting her index finger on Rachels lips.

She chuckled as she continued.

"...I've thought this through for a while now. I just think its time for us to take the next step in our relationship. That's why I brought you, and all of our friends here. So, here goes nothing..."

Brooke chuckled again and seemed hesitant.

"Rachel Virginia Gatina, Will you marry me?"

Rachel had expected a lot of things, but this was not one of them. "I – I don't know what to say."

Brooke smiled as she looked at Rachel, her eyes still welling up with tears.

"A "yes" would be a good start." She joked seriously.

Brooke went to Bevin, who gave her a small box containing a beautiful diamond/gold ring.

"Just think about it." She told Rachel as she showed her the ring.

Rachel pulled Brooke closer to her. She could no longer keep up her tears either. She came closer to Brooke and whispered a soft "Yes" in her ear.

"Are you serious?" Brooke wanted to know, the surprise in her voice growing with every word.

"Yes." Rachel now said aloud.

After hearing Rachels confirmation, the audience started applauding and cheering

Bevin could no longer hold up her exitement and ran over to Rachel and Brooke and started hugging, kissing and congratulating them.

Than, she went over to Skills and jumped into a hug while squeeling her happyness. "Awww, this is just too cute!! I can't wait until the wedding!"

Brooke offered the ring to Rachel, who tearfully accepted it and gave it a full examination.

It was a beautiful golden/white golden combination with 5 pure, beautifully cut diamonds shaped in a diamond form. The middle row of the ring was implemented with 50 small rubies.

There was also an inscription saying: "Brooke Rachel eleventh grade/lifetime" in a beautifully fonted script.

Late that night, after the engagement party, Brooke and Rachel went home. No longer as friends, no longer as girlfriends, but as fiances.

A passionate night followed.

"Love you" Rachel said happily, right before they went to sleep. "I love you too." Brooke replied.

After that, they both fell asleep into eachothers arms, ready to spend the rest of their lives together.

End of Chapter 3

THE END


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